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229
[1909
owners, they have been registered as satisfactory; but it must be remembered that the
pavement ventilation invariably admits as much dirt and road detritis as fresh air, so that
a greater amount of labour is required to obtain the necessary cleanliness, while it is
doubtful in the disease geims in the dust-laden atmosphere are always destroyed in the
processes of cooking.
There are twelve offences scheduled under the London County Council's General
Powers Act, 1908. In Section 8 of this Act it is laid down that—
(a) No w.c. or earth closet, etc., etc., shall be within a room, shop, or part of a
building where food is prepared, or stored for sale, or shall communicate therewith
except through the open air.
(A) No ashpit (dustbin) or similar convenience shall be within a room, shop, etc., etc.
(c) No drain or pipe for carrying off fcecal or sewage matter shall have any inlet or
opening within such room, shop, or other part of a building.
Following your instructions, wherever any contravention of the Act was found, an
intimation notice was duly served. No great difficulty was experienced in carrying out the
first and second of the above sections, but the third has proved to be impracticable, if
taken literally.
The meaning of the Section is Obscure. Is "an opening to a drain" intended to
include floor gullies, properly trapped, and designed to carry off the surface water from
such places as fish washing and cutting rooms, brine pickling rooms, or cement floors in
cookhouses that are cleansed at least once or twice daily by broom and hose?
As an instance:—The business of brine pickling requires hundreds of gallons of
water, and the tanks are usually emptied by removing a plug at the base, and allowing the
water to flow away down the floor gully. The question has arisen as to how these tanks
are to be emptied when situated in a basement kitchen from which all gullies have been
r.emoved?
It must be remembered that few basement cookhouses have any open space at the
front or rear, every available inch of ground having been used for the business. The
only alternative appears to be that the water must be carried up to a sink on the upper
floors, or to the street, which is, of course, utterly impracticable. And whereas, under
existing conditions, the floor is cleansed with broom and hose at least once or twice daily,
without a gully, the labour required would be doubled, with the probable result that the
cleansing would be less frequent.
Therefore, the occupiers and owners of basement cookhouses protested against carrying
out this section, for the reason that it would cause a general disorganization of the
trade processes in some instances, with a probable diminution of the cleanliness of the
premises in others. Briefly : it is theoretically good, but practically unworkable.
To carry out its provisions would mean the abolition of basement cookhouse?,
which, desirable as it is, might be better done by a time limit of occupation for those in
use at present, and a prohibitory clause in reference to the opening of any other basement
premises for the preparation of food.
Upon this being made apparent, your instructions were that for the present this
section should remain in abeyance, and no further notices for the abolition of basement
gullies have been issued.